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Vm235: Thermodynamics
Homework 9
Assigned Wed Jul 20, 2016; Due Thur Jul 28 at the start of class

Homework
These problems should be completed according to the
solution format posted on the course website.
1) The explosion of a hot water tank in a school in
Spencer, Oklahoma, in 1982 killed seven people
while injuring 33 others. Although the number of
such explosions has decreased dramatically since
the development of the ASME Pressure Vessel
Code (which requires the tanks to be designed to
withstand four times the normal operating pressures), accidents still occur as a result of the failure of the pressure relief valves and thermostats.
When a tank filled with high-pressure and hightemperature liquid ruptures, the sudden drop of
the pressure of the liquid to the atmospheric level
causes part of the liquid to flash into vapor, and
thus to experience a huge rise in its volume. The
resulting pressure wave that propagates rapidly can
cause considerable damage.
Considering that the pressurized liquid from
the tank reaches equilibrium with its surroundings
shortly after explosion, the work that a pressurized
liquid would do if allowed to expand reversibly and
adiabatically to the pressure of the surroundings
can be viewed as the explosive energy of the
pressurized liquid. Because of the very short time
period of the explosion and the apparent calm
afterward, the explosion process can be considered
to be adiabatic with no changes in kinetic and
potential energies and no mixing with the air.
Consider a 80-L hot-water tank that has a
working pressure of 0.5 MPa. As a result of some
malfunction, the pressure in the tank rises to
2 MPa, at which point the tank explodes. Taking
the atmospheric pressure to be 100 kPa and assuming the liquid in the tank to be saturated at the time
of explosion, determine the total explosion energy
of the tank in terms of the TNT equivalence. (The
explosion energy of TNT is about 3250 kJ/kg,
and 5 kg of TNT can cause total destruction of
unreinforced structures within about a 7-m radius.)
Answer: 1.97 kg TNT. (P7194, textbook, 7th ed.)

2) cf. Problem 5 of HW8: A vortex tube separates a

stream of compressed air into two lower-pressure
streams one hot and the other cold. The fraction
of cold air stream exiting the tube relative to the
supply air stream entering the tube is known as
the cold fraction. According to the product information from one vendor [1], a vortex tube supplied
with a compressed air stream at 1.4 bar(gauge)
and set at 30% cold fraction is able to induce a
temperature drop of 33 C in the cold stream
versus a temperature rise of 14 C in the hot
stream. Both exiting air streams are at ambient
pressure.
a) Verify that the vortex tube does not violate
the laws of thermodynamics.
b) At what supply air temperature did you
choose to evaluate the vortex tube performance? Explain why a low temperature (say,
30 C) may be an unsuitable choice without proper conditioning of the supply air.
3) cf. Problem 8 of HW8: Supercharging of an engine
is used to increase the inlet air density so that more
fuel can be added, the result of which is increased
power output. Assume that ambient air, 100 kPa,
27 C, enters the supercharger at a rate of 250 L/s.
The supercharger (compressor) has an isentropic
efficiency of 75% and used 20 kW of power input.
Assume that the ideal and actual compressor have
the same exit pressure.
a) Find the ideal specific work, and verify that
the exit pressure is 175 kPa.
b) Find the percent increase in air density entering the engine due to the supercharger, and
c) Find the entropy generation. (P9.147 [2])
4) An electrically driven pump steadily draws water
from a pond at a rate of 40 kg/s and delivers
the water at a gage pressure of 3 bars with no
significant change in elevation. The isentropic
pump efficiency is 80%. Evaluating electricity at
0.617 RMB per kWh, estimate the hourly cost of
running the pump. (P6.157 [3])

5) Refrigerant-134a at 140 kPa, 10 C is compressed to an exit state of 700 kPa, 60 C. The

power input is 0.5 kW. Neglecting changes in
kinetic and potential energy, determine (P8-84 [4])
a) the isentropic efficiency of the compressor
b) the volume flow rate of the refrigerant at the
compressor inlet, in L/min, and
c) the maximum volume flow rate (L/min) at
the inlet conditions that this 0.5 kW compressor can handle without violating the 2nd Law.
In addition, sketch the actual process on a T -s
diagram.
6) A steam turbine inlet is at 1200 kPa, 500 C. The
exit is at 200 kPa. What is the lowest possible exit
temperature? What isentropic efficiency does that
correspond to? (P9.103 [2])
7) Steam enters a two-stage adiabatic turbine at
8 MPa and 550 C. It expands in the first stage
to a pressure of 2 MPa. Then steam is reheated at
constant pressure to 550 C before it is expanded in
a second stage to a pressure of 200 kPa. The total
power output of the turbine is 80 MW. Assuming
an isentropic efficiency of 84 percent for each stage
of the turbine, determine the required mass flow
rate of steam. Also, show the process on a T -s
diagram with respect to saturation lines. Answer:
85.8 kg/s. (P7190, textbook, 7th ed.)
8) Refrigerant 134a is the working fluid in a solar
power plant operating on a Rankine cycle. Saturated vapor at 60 C enters the turbine, and the
condenser operates at a pressure of 6 bars. The rate
of energy input to the collectors from solar radiation is 0.4 kW per m2 of collector surface area.
Determine the minimum possible solar collector
surface area, in m2 , per kW of power developed
by the plant. (P8.13 [3])
R EFERENCES
[1] Nex Flow Air Products Corp, Frigid-XTM Vortex Tubes, accessed
July 20, 2016. Available: http://www.nexflowair.com/vortex-tube.
php
[2] C. Borgnakke and R. E. Sonntag, Fundamentals of Thermodynamics, SI Version, 7th ed. Wiley, 2009.
[3] M. J. Moran and H. N. Shapiro, Fundamentals of Engineering
Thermodynamics, 3rd ed. Wiley, 1996.
[4] K. Wark and D. E. Richards, Thermodynamics, 6th ed. McGrawHill, 1999.